December 20, 2023
Building transferable soft skills, such as leadership, strong communication, flexibility, and open-mindedness, requires regular maintenance. Soft skills are not obtained overnight, nor do they exist in a vacuum—they shift and require attention as people grow—in and outside of the workplace. Such maintenance may seem like it takes a lot of work, time, and energy, but there are small, practical things you can do to stay on top of things.
Our first recommendation is to ask for feedback. It is challenging for someone to be fully self-aware—an important soft skill nonetheless. As outlined by a 2018 article from Harvard Business Review, there are various factors that may hinder someone’s ability to be fully self-aware, including lack of feedback (especially for senior leaders). “[T]he more power a leader wields, the less comfortable people will be to give them constructive feedback, for fear it will hurt their careers,” the article states.
But why is feedback, and more importantly self-awareness, so important? Well, as Harvard Business Review explains, this soft skill may not only lead to clarity, confidence, creativity, stronger relationships, and effective communication, but also to promotions, as well as “more-effective leaders with more-satisfied employees and more-profitable companies.”
The importance of this is clearly articulated by the Forbes Coaches Council. Particularly, a quote from Daisy Wright, Chief Encouragement Officer at The Wright Career Solution, a career guidance service:
“Given the choice, most employers would prefer to hire someone with good soft skills and fewer hard skills. Professionals can improve their soft skills through training and practice and a willingness to ask for and accept honest feedback. This strategy is effective as it gives them a peek into how they are perceived by others and how they can adjust their behavior to become successful.”
We understand that asking for honest feedback may be nerve-racking. Of course, many organizations and companies have regular review sessions where managers take time to connect with their employees on what is working, what needs to shift, and next steps. If this is the case in your company, it is important to seize these opportunities and take full advantage of them.
However, without these structured sessions or touchpoints, the onus often falls on the employee to seek out opportunities to receive constructive feedback. There are a myriad of ways to approach this depending on individual circumstances and environments at work. As outlined in one article, this could look like setting up a meeting with your manager to directly ask for feedback, direction on the soft skills you are trying to improve (for example, collaboration, active listening, public speaking, etc.) in relation to your work, or for notes on what they think you need to focus your energy on.
You can also rely on other trusted individuals in your work life, who have your best interests in mind—such as a mentor, a close colleague, etc. This ties into a larger point about relationship building, which leads us into another one of our recommendations: build meaningful relationships. It is important to not only to do this with your clients but also those already within your organization. Meaningful relationships will improve your work life overall, and unlock channels for candid and helpful feedback; essentially, you are using soft skills (relationship building) to improve and gain more soft skills.
A lot of this conversation has been about advocating for yourself, which brings us to our next tip: get out of your comfort zone, challenge yourself, and be adaptable. This is very much related to seeking out feedback and finding ways to continue building soft skills. Asking for feedback is simply the first step, the next one is to take action. How will you interpret and act on what advice has been given to you?
We are our biggest advocates, so it is important that we push ourselves to be our best selves. Oftentimes, this includes trying new things, which may seem scary, but should also be exciting. For example, if you need to improve your communication skills, try taking on more opportunities for public speaking or set a goal to say at least one thing in each team meeting. Perhaps the problem is that you are too focused on your independent work, however. If this is the case, maybe you can take on more teamwork opportunities.
Finally, you can always reach out to others for help, if this all feels overwhelming or you do not know where to start. That is why we are excited to launch our SoftSkillable™ Member Experience—a real and meaningful way to address workplace challenges—such as new leadership, employee retention, and lack of optimization—in relation to soft skill development and maintenance. For us the SoftSkillable™ Member Experience is more than just a way to develop your soft skills, but a way to build a community that will support you throughout the process. We will be sharing more information soon, so stay tuned!